Bill Whittle: Three Years of Obama

Illuminating economic charts of 2011

The American Enterprise Blog shares the seven economic charts of 2011 they believe are the most enlightening.  I would have included this one...

which helps explain this one.

This is their number one pick, and it's a good one..

We who opposed President Obama's "recovery" "plan" need to keep presenting this one over and over through the election. 

OWS is "Just Like the Tea Party"

Remember when Tea Party protesters caused millions of dollars in damage, left tons of trash to be cleaned up by others and defaced public property?  No?  Huh, me neither.  Weird, isn't it?

Repairs to City Hall’s lawn where the Occupy group set up camp on Oct. 1 will require an estimated $400,000. The police action to clear out the encampment on Nov. 30 cost more than $700,000. Additional expenses are attributed to hauling away debris from the camp, and cleaning up graffiti that defaced City Hall marble walls and trees. Mayor Villaraigosa says more budget cuts will be necessary to offset the costs.

Which is precisely the opposite of what the occupiers claimed they wanted.  Congratulations!  From the LA Times:

Sanitation officials said Wednesday that they expect to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment –- everything from clothing to heaps of garbage to oddball curiosities left behind by the protesters who lived at the City Hall tent city for two months.

The UN is a Joke

A sick, twisted, astronomically expensive joke. Further evidence (as if we needed any more):

The 66th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday observed a minute's silence to mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 66th General Assembly session, asked the representatives of 193 UN member states attending a plenary session on economic and financial affairs to pay tribute to the late DPRK leader, who died on Dec. 17. 

The move was at the request of the DPRK, said the president, and the one-minute silence was observed before the start of the plenary meeting of the General Assembly.

Seriously?  "Mourn the death of Kim Jong Il"?  "Pary tribute to the late DPRK leader"?  The man starved millions of his own people to death, enslaved the rest and terrorized his neighbors, and these people think it's appropriate to mourn and pay tribute to him?  

Don't get me wrong, I'm not surprised.  This is the same organization that's had countries like Cuba, Libya and Iran on its "Human Rights Commission".  It just never ceases to amaze me that some Americans continue to have faith in this decomposing corpse of an organization.

Pro-Life Nurses Don't Have to Kill Babies

Twelve Pro-Life nurses in NJ sued the hospital where they work for attempting to violate their constitutional right to exercise their conscience.  The hospital threatened to fire the nurses if they did not assist in abortions.  Fortunately, freedom of conscience - and common sense - won this time.

Under an agreement UMDNJ agreed to the nurses can remain in their current positions and not be pressured to assist in any part of an abortion procedure. The nurses are only required to help if a life-threatening emergency materializes with the mother involved in the abortion and no other non-objecting staff are available to assist and only until such a time as other can be called up on to relive them.

Fe Esperanza Racpan Vinoya, one of the plaintiffs in the case, told AP she was delighted by the decision but nurse Racpan Vinoya said she was still concerned the hospital would retaliate against her by transferring her or cutting hours.

“I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said.

Naturally, the "American" "Civil" "Liberties" Union (it's impossible to state the first three words in context un-ironically) has a problem with people exercising their right to not kill babies.  Tina Korbe explains why this is nonsense.

But as New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith put it, “UMDNJ argues that sometimes so-called safe, elective abortions put women in life-threatening situations [The same procedure of which you need not be notified if your daughter's teacher takes her to get one, even though your daughter can't be given an aspirin without your consent.  ~OS].  When an abortion threatens to take the life of both the baby and the mom, the pro-life nurses have always been willing to step in, if needed, to preserve the life of the mother until the emergency code team arrives.”

Precisely. To suggest otherwise is to be just as disingenuous as Nancy Pelosi when she suggested that Republicans “want” women to “die on the floor.”

This is less a question of abortion rights or wrongs as it is a question of religious liberty and conscience rights. It’s encouraging to see a federal court recognize that and take a stand for religious freedom.

It's good to see the courts rule on the side of Life and Liberty once in a while.

Gary Taubes: Why We Get Fat

Courtesy of Crossfit HQ,  a great three part lecture by Gary Taubes, investigative science journalist and author of Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It.  He presents evidence that explodes many long-held beliefs about nutrition.

2011 Crossfit Games on ESPN 2

In case you missed it, ESPN 2 will air the 2011 Crossfit Games again on New Year's Day.

Starting Strength, 3rd Edition

Via Instapundit: Glenn Reynolds interviews Mark Rippetoe about the third edition of his book, Starting Strength.

Prometheus

If this looks a lot like Alien to you, that's because Ridley Scott directed Alien and now Prometheus.  Alien is one of my all time favorites, and a classic of both the sci-fi and horror genres, so I'm looking forward to this one.  Ridley Scott also directed Blade Runner, which is also a classic, but is so weird I couldn't get into it the one time I watched it.  Maybe I should try watching it again.  I've found that as I get older and my tastes change I see all kinds of things in a different light.

Build Your Own Bat Pod

Apparently, this guy did.  I don't know that for sure - the website doesn't say - but how else would he obtain such a rolling tribute to geekdom?

12 Days of Christmas WOD

That's Aimee - AKA, The Wife - doing the "12 Days of Christmas" WOD (Work Out of the Day) two nights ago at Crossfit Manhattan, KS.  In case you haven't noticed, she's very pregnant.  Here's the workout.

1x Squat Clean (95/63#)
2x Jerks (95/63#)
3x Deadlifts (95/63#)
4x Hang Power Cleans (95/63#)
5x Front Squats (95/63#)
6x Strict Pull Ups (Chin Over)
7x Ball Slam to Walls (30/20#@9Ft.)*
8x Hand-Release Burpees
9x KB Swings (55/35#)
10x Goblet Squats (55/35#)
11x Knee-to-Elbows
1200M Row

It's supposed to go like the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas", although Coach Megan got the order wrong.  That means it went like this:

1. 1x squat clean
2. 1x squat clean, 2x jerks
3. 1x squat clean, 2x jerks, 3x deadlifts
4. 1x squat clean, 2x jerks, 3x deadlifts, 4x hang power cleans...

and so on, until it ended with a 1200m row.  It's one of the hardest workouts we've done at the gym.  It took me almost an hour to finish.  Few Crossfit workouts take more than 20 minutes.  

I wrote all that to say that I'm immensely proud of my wife.  We were overjoyed when we found out she was pregnant, but we couldn't help but feel frustrated because so much of the progress she made in the prior year would be inevitably reversed.  She swore to continue Crossfit for as long as possible and she's come through like a champ.  She needs to modify the WODs substantially (note the stacks of plates) to accommodate her rapidly expanding belly, but even so she pushes herself to her current limit.  

I married a damned good woman. 

Government Control & Poverty

Dan Mitchell of Cato presents the facts.

One hopes that the dictator of North Korea suffered greatly before he died. After all, his totalitarian and communist (pardon the redundancy) policies have cause untold death and misery.
But let’s try to learn an economics lesson. In a previous post, I compared long-term growth in Hong Kong and Argentina to show the difference between capitalism and cronyism.
But for a much more dramatic comparison, look at the difference between North Korea and South Korea. 

One could make a similar comparison of East and West Germany; same people, same culture, different political and economic systems, vastly different outcomes.

Here's that comparison between Hong Kong and Argentina mentioned in Mitchell's paragraph above.

Argentina used to be one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, but successive "administrations" (if one can call them that) decided to go the route of cronyism.  The Argentinian government picks economic winners and losers instead of allowing markets to do so, which is their purpose.  Hong Kong, on the other hand, has one of the most free, least regulated economies on Earth, and went from being one of the poorest to among the richest countries (if one can call it that).  Do you suppose there's a correlation?

There's more.  The following chart compares income growth in Chile, Argentina and Venezuela.

After Pinochet's dictatorship ended, Chile began reforming its economic policies.  Today, Chile ranks as the 4th most free economy in the world; embarrassingly ahead of the United States.  Consequently, Chile, which used to be the poorest country in the group, is now the wealthiest.  Venezuela, which used to be the wealthiest, is now essentially a Communist dictatorship under Hugo Chavez.  Consequently, they are now the poorest country in the group.  Argentina, which continues its cronyism, is in the middle. 

Do you think we could learn a lesson from these comparisons?  Do you think we will? 

The Hobbit Trailer

Are you as excited as I am?  Probably not; I'm kind of a nerd.

Anorexic Action Heroines

I recently ran across a movie trailer that highlighted a trend: actresses so skinny a light breeze could knock them over playing tough chicks who beat 200lb men into pulp.  Fictional stories always require the willing suspension of disbelief, but when they ask too much suspension of disbelief from the audience, it ruins the story.  Is it too much to ask that the actresses who play ass-kicking roles actually look like they might be capable of kicking ass?  That brings me to the trailer of "Haywire".



If the lead actress, Gina Carano, looks like she can kick ass, that's because she has.  Ms Carano is a professional fighter with a 12-1-1 record in kick boxing and a 7-1 record in MMA.  She's (wo)man handled almost all her opponents.

I don't know if Ms Carano can act, and that brings up one problem.  It's much easier to take a good actor and teach him/her a few MMA moves than to take a good MMA fighter and teach him/her how to act.  Still, is it too much to ask that the actresses playing these roles take their skinny butts to a gym, lift something heavier than 5lb once in while, and give up their vegan diets for a few months so they actually look like they could perform those moves in real life?

A few actresses have.  Demi Moore did for GI Jane, which sucked.


Linda Hamilton did for Terminator II, which rocked.

But for the most part, studios give us Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider, Salt)...

Mila Jojovich (Resident Evil, Ultra Violet)...

Scarlett Johansson (Iron Man II, The Avengers)...

and Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises)...

all of whom seem to need a steak ASAP, and exemplify "skinny fat"; people who are thin, but flabby and devoid of muscle.  They're all nice to look at, but none of them can play an ass kicking role convincingly.  On top of that, Mila Jojovich and Scarlett Johansson aren't even good actresses, so that excuse doesn't fly (Anne Hathaway is alright as long as she doesn't try to speak with a British accent).

Now, compare those frail waifs with a genuine ass kicker like Gina Carano.  I'll be the first to point out that fitness is all about what you can do, not how you look, but movies are all about image, and the women producers typically hire to play action heroines portray an image of frailty, weakness and hunger.

So, why do producers insist on hiring such women?  Movies are big business, so I suspect that producers think audiences don't want to see fit women on film, and if audiences stay away they loose millions.  But, who do they think is repulsed by fit women?  Linda Hamilton certainly didn't keep men from watching Terminator II.  GI Jane bombed, but it was a crappy movie (57% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

I don't think producers are afraid of losing men with fit female leads.  Every single time, without fail, I've talked to a woman about lifting weights, each of them always game me the same response; "Eew, I don't want to get bulky".  Considering that, I think producers are afraid to lose the women in the audience.  Am I wrong?  I hope so.  I hope women aren't still stuck in the mentality that weakness is feminine and strength isn't.  What do you say?

UPDATE: I should have added Zoe Saldana to the list.  She looks like she couldn't beat up a third grader, much less the 200lb trained killers she dispatches with ease in "Colombiana" and "The Losers".

From Tiberius to Caligula?

Could Kim Jun Eun (I guess we're spelling it with an "E" now) possibly be worse than dear old dad?  From the Wall Street Journal:

North Korea's new leader is depicted in U.S. intelligence assessments as a volatile youth with a sadistic streak who may be even more unpredictable than his late father, according to U.S. officials.

 A senior U.S. official said intelligence analysts believe, for instance, that Kim Jung Eun "tortured small animals" when he was a youth. "He has a violent streak and that's worrisome," a senior U.S. official said, summing up the U.S. assessments.

Apparently, we now have a nuclear armed, terrorist state run by Dexter.

Everything Obama Knows About the Economy

Fifth Gear Tests the 2012 BMW M5

Via Autoblog.com: Vicky Butler Henderson of "Fifth Gear" thrashes the new M5.

KTM RC4

From Hell for Leather Magazine (no, it's not an S&M site): Calm down.  It's not a factory option.  It's a kit you can buy to turn a KTM 690 Duke into a sport bike.  It looks like loads of fun, but I'd rather keep the Duke as is.

To many of you, the bike you see here is something of a unicorn. A street-legal, single-cylinder sportsbike that weighs just 275lbs and makes 70bhp. That KTM LC4 motor is well-proven, has reasonable service intervals and won’t rattle your fillings out. Looks sexy in RC8-esque fairings too. The problem? KTM doesn’t actually make it, instead, the RC4 is only available in kit form from a German supplier.

Mid-capacity, single-cylinder sportsbikes hold so much promise because they’re: a) really light b) really torquey and c) incredibly simple. Those three attributes should equal accessible performance with the kind of handling typically reserved for GP bikes, all at reasonable cost.

Holy smokes, that looks like fun!  275lbs!  I can squat that!

Mark's Definitive Guide to Fats

Yesterday we looked at how grains, which the USDA continues to tell us are healthy and necessary for our nutrition, aren't.  What is healthy?  How about fat?  If the USDA was (still is) completely wrong about grains, could they be equally mistaken about fats?  Mark Sisson explains.

As you know, I’ve always been a friend to many fats. But the fact remains, ladies and gentlemen, that not all fats are created equal.  A few fats, including but not limited to trans fats, deserve every bit of disparagement they get and then some. However, we feel for those other little guys in the group. Many of them are, assuredly, a good lot, and we’d like to put in a good word for them. 

 This one is complicated, and therefore difficult to summarize, but I'll try.

1. Monounsaturated fats - Healthy sources: olive oil, avocados, nuts
2. Polyunsaturated fats: There's no agreement as to the optimum ratio between the two major types, but a 1:1 ratio is probably best.  Most Americans eat far too much Omega 6 and too little Omega 3. 
• Omega 3 - Healthy sources: fish, grass-fed ruminants (beef, bison, elk, goat, lamb, venison, etc.), nuts
• Omega 6 - Healthy sources: poultry, nuts
3. Saturated fats - Healthy sources: animals.  Tasty, tasty animals. 

There's much more to it, of course, so please read the whole article. 

Epic Meal Time

I don't know who these guys are, but this looks delicious!

Kim Jong-il is Dead!

The tune they sing in "The Wizard of Oz" when the witch melts keeps running through my head.  "Kim, Jong, the Il is dead!"  From the BBC:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced.

Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said.

It's always good news when an evil, sadistic, megalomaniacal dictator dies, and Kim Jong-il was among the worst, but there's a dark lining around this silver cloud.

1. The Kim dynasty is still in place.
2. This could lead to a power struggle between the Kim brothers.

Kim chose his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to succeed him.  The youngest Kim has two older brothers, and he's widely considered weak.  Could one - or both - of the older Kim brothers make a power play?  How will this affect the people of North and South Korea?  

UPDATE 1: Oh, crap.

Following the death of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, China is moving quickly to deepen its influence over senior officials in North Korea and particularly with those in the military to try to ensure stability in the isolated nation, according to Chinese and foreign former government officials and analysts.

Mr. Kim’s death “means that China will have to assume a heavier responsibility over the relationship in order to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” said Xu Wenji, a professor of Northeast Asian studies at Jilin University and a former Chinese envoy to South Korea. Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said, “The death significantly enhances uncertainty on the peninsula.” He added: “In my personal view, the succession is very hastily arranged and Kim Jong-un is very ill prepared to take over.”

 “Frankly speaking, there is a substantial chance of political instability in North Korea,” he said. “This is based on the nature of the regime, the inadequate process of succession and economic hardships in the country.” 

UPDATE 2: Little Kim seems to be flexing his (military hardware) muscles.

North Korea test fired two short-range ballistic missiles off the country's eastern coast just before midnight Sunday, the same day leader Kim Jong Il's death was announced, a senior US defense official told FOX News Channel.  The unnamed official said both landed in the sea and posed no threat to anyone. 

Mark's Definitive Guide to Grains

Remember the old USDA food pyramid with which we all grew up?

We were supposed to eat tons of grains (cereal, bread, pasta, etc.), lots of veggies and fruits, a little meat and dairy and a teensy, weensy little bit of fat and sweets.

It's a load of crap, except for the sweets.

Mark Sisson, of Mark's Daily Apple, explains why.

When I say humans didn’t evolve eating grains, I mean our digestive processes didn’t evolve to maximize the effectiveness of grain consumption. Just because you can tolerate grains to a certain degree, as just about all of us can (thanks to those earlier folks hitting the end of the genetic line), doesn’t mean your body was designed for them or that they’re truly healthy for you or – especially – that you can achieve optimum health through them. We’re not talking about what will allow you to hobble along. We’re talking about the foods that offer effective and efficient digestion and nutrient absorption in the body.

There's much more at the link above, but basically, it comes down to these factors:

1. Grains' glycemic load is too high.  They cause spikes in blood sugar.  The body responds by producing insulin, which removes sugar from the blood and causes the body to store fat.
2. Grains have very little nutritional value when compared to meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
3. What little nutritional value grains have is negated by phytate, which prevents the body from absorbing those nutrients.
4. We don't need them.  Whatever nutrition we might receive from grains, if not for the phytate, we can get from vegetables and fruits without the negative effects of grains, and far more benefits, like antioxidants and natural anti-inflammatories. 

Bottom line; avoid grains and replace them with meat, veggies and fruit. 

Act of Valor: Trailer 3

The acting will probably be terrible - the main characters are played by actual SEALs, not professional actors - but I'm still looking forward to this!  Besides, not every movie needs to be "Citizen Kane", and this looks exciting.  Only one problem: I'm afraid they put all the best scenes in the trailer.

Bill Whittle's Guide to the Election

Bill Whittle, in his inimitable way, explains the choice before us.

I highly recommend all his informative videos.

What Deregulation?

What is slowing the economy's rate of recovery?  Since World War II, the economy rebounded at a rate generally proportional to the recession that preceded the recovery.  But not this time.  This time, the downturn was steep, but the "recovery" has been shallow and slow.  See this page from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve for a series of helpful comparison charts.

The red line refusing to curve back upward is the current recession, which began in 2007.

So, what's weighing down the recovery?  Republicans claim excessive regulation is the problem.  Democrats claim that couldn't possibly be true.  From the Wall Street Journal:

 Jan Eberly, an Assistant Treasury Secretary, kicked off the Administration campaign with a white paper in October that purported to debunk the "misconceptions" that "uncertainty is holding back business investment and hiring and that the overall burden of existing regulations is so high that firms have reduced their hiring." Then the Administration mobilized some of the worst offenders, such as Kathleen Sebelius of HHS ("There has been no explosion of new rules") and Lisa Jackson of the EPA (her opponents are "using the economy as cover").

So who is right?  To answer that question, we first must ask if the number of regulations has increased in the last few years. Has it? The chart at the left presents the number of regulations being proposed or added each year.  A few things to note here.  First, not every regulation proposed ends up on the books, but many do.  Second, each of these regulations, when enacted, weighs the economy down by a minimum of $100 million per year.  Third, this chart does not include all the regulations that cost less than $100 million per year, but still add weight.  Fourth, these are only the regulations being added to an already bloated regulatory system, and old regulations never seem to come off the books.

Maybe all these regulations aren't the only reason the recovery has progressed so slowly, but how could they possibly have zero effect?

OWS 1, Small Business 0

Way to go, "Occupy Wall Street"!  Your months of protesting, public defecation and urination, drug use, assaults, abuse of public and private property and general lawlessness, you finally achieved what you set out to do.  You showed the evil, greedy 1% that they can't exploit the 99% anymore by... putting a bunch of cooks, waiters and waitresses out of work... and just in time for Christmas!  Mission accomplished!

Six months after opening a popular eatery on Wall Street, the owner is closing its doors for good on Thursday.

Marc Epstein said that when he opened the Milk Street Café, business was booming but then came Occupy Wall Street and precautions by the police department. 

Last month, Epstein was forced to let 21 employees go and cut the store’s hours, closing at 3 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

It's ever thus with Socialists.  They claim to be for "the Masses", but their actions hurt those of middle, or low income worst, not the "evil", "greedy" "rich" they claim are the target.  Witness the Occupiers' shut-down of the Port of Oakland.

Truck drivers on Tuesday said they lost $500 to $1,000 each by not being able to drop off or pick up cargo because of the port occupation this week. And they said they had to spend hours in line Tuesday because of work orders that were delayed Monday.

But that's OK, because some of those union members are apparently among the "evil" "rich".

Port officials also noted that the demonstrations prevented members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union from handling cargo at the docks Monday. The port has about 2,000 ILWU workers, who make between $100,000 and $200,000 a year.

I guess they got what they deserve, according to the self-appointed defenders of the proletariat.

Post 0

So, this is my first post of my new blog. Why am I doing this? I'd like a place where old friends can find me and I can share my thoughts. I realize that's what Facebook is supposed to do, but I prefer the blogging format to Facebook, so here goes.

Henceforth, this place will be a disorganized mish-mash of whatever piques my interest - fitness, nutrition, mechanical things that go "vroom-vroom", gadgets, science, technology, the military, news, politics, theology, etc. - in no particular order.

Enjoy!